More than $76 million dollars—the highest amount ever—was invested in research and innovation activity in the province.
HIGHLY SKILLED PEOPLE—OVER $74 MILLION INVESTED
Over 240 researchers comprise the cadre of excellence in health research and innovation supported with $62 million by AIHS in 2010-2011.
- This includes the 37 new awardees in the last AHFMR competition, including 18 researchers recruited to Alberta. AIHS supports people like Dr. Valerie Sim, who came back to Alberta from the U.S. to study prion diseases in humans; Dr. Eric Smith, recruited from Harvard, who is identifying ways to detect early warning signs for stroke and dementia; and Dr. Gilaad Kaplan who is investigating the link between gastrointestinal disease and air pollution.
- It also includes top quality research activity of the Polaris award holder Dr. Bruce McNaughton and the 10 Interdisciplinary Teams (co-funded by Alberta Health and Wellness). Teams are tackling priority health issues such as low birth weight in babies which leads to an array of health issues. Alberta has the highest rate of low birth weight babies in Canada.
- AIHS funding for trainees includes 64 new graduate students, 46 new Fellows and 10 new Clinical Fellows, 202 Summer Students, 42 HYRS students as well as a number of Forefront Interns and MBA/MBT students. Post-doctoral Fellow Dr. Stefanie Hassel came from the US to study with a leading Calgary researcher to develop better ways of diagnosing bipolar disorder, a severe mental illness.
- More than $12 million was provided in support of cancer research through AIHS’s arrangement with Alberta Health and Wellness to administer the research portion of the Alberta Cancer Prevention Legacy Fund. Part of this support includes the Tomorrow Project which is recruiting 50,000 Albertans who will be followed for 20 to 25 years to try to better understand the development of cancer and other chronic diseases.
INNOVATION PLATFORMS—OVER $600,000 INVESTED
- Alberta is the first province in Canada to develop a reciprocity agreement between its health research ethics boards to more effectively deal with ethics reviews especially for multi-site research. The Health Research Ethics Reciprocity Agreement was signed by the six accredited Health Research Ethics Boards housed at: University of Alberta, University of Calgary, University of Lethbridge, the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Alberta, Alberta Health Services, and Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions. Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions facilitated and provided support services for the project. This is good news for research and development companies that want to invest in Alberta. A harmonized process for health research ethics review translates into cost savings and the potential for additional value added investments.
- Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions is a partner with Alberta Innovates – Technology Futures and Enterprise and Advanced Education in funding Genome Alberta to integrate its activities with the research and innovation system, develop a provincial genomics strategy, and strengthen the province’s national and international advantages in genomics. This is good news for researchers and investors who want to participate in a core scientific platform for the development of new products and services across industry sectors.
KNOWLEDGE AT WORK—NEARLY $2 MILLION INVESTED
- Through a national coalition, AIHS received a successful National Networks of Centres of Excellence interprovincial Industrial Research and Development Internship grant for 30 Alberta internship positions which will be filled collaboratively by the four Alberta Innovates corporations.
- AIHS organized several Alberta-based conferences and workshops: Research Transfer Network of Alberta , Making Connections, Cancer Planning workshop, and Research Fests to support the exchange and transfer of knowledge across multiple stakeholder groups.
- AIHS awarded knowledge translation grants for mobilizing knowledge into policy and enabling knowledge presentation and exchange at conferences. This is good news for all Albertans as KT helps move health research into action and use.
PARTNERSHIPS AND OTHER STRATEGIC ACTIVITIES
- AIHS is collaborating with Rand UK on international research projects focused on evaluating and improving knowledge transfer from research to application.
- Signed collaborative working agreements with the Alberta Cancer Foundation (provincially), and the Terry Fox Research Institute (nationally) for support of research and innovation activities in cancer.
LOOKING AHEAD....
- AIHS will contribute $18 million to the universities for one and two year extensions to AHFMR awards that expire in 2011 and 2012. This helps stabilize and sustain the health research community while transition plans are developed.
- The AIHS request for a draw of $118 million over the next eight years from the AHFMR Endowment Fund was approved in the Government of Alberta’s budget of 2011-2012. The draw will assist the Universities with developing plans to focus on the maintenance of critical capacity for health research in Alberta including transitioning 240 researchers who will be coming off the AHFMR Investigator Award system between now and 2017.
- AIHS in partnership with Alberta Innovates – Technology Futures will be exploring strategies to promote the discovery and commercialization of technologies for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of viral diseases at the Li Ka Shing Institute for Virology on the University of Alberta campus.
- AIHS is coordinating an Alberta Innovates collaboration to fill 30 industry internships during 2011-12 that will enable graduate students to engage in a research project under their faculty supervisor’s direction to solve an industry problem. Funding is provided by receptor companies and the Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems Inc (MITACS), one of Canada’s Networks of Centres of Excellence.
- AIHS is supporting the Alberta Clinical Trials and Research Centre which will be facilitating a provincial initiative to align and harmonize processes across institutions that support clinical trial research activity in Alberta.
- AIHS is engaging with stakeholders over 2011 to define and develop proposals for new research and innovation funding initiatives in key priority areas that support AHRIS.